Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, and the Dominican Republic rejected this Saturday the inauguration ceremony of President Nicolás Maduro for a third term in Venezuela following elections they consider fraudulent. The four governments, which make up the Alliance for Development in Democracy (ADD), rejected “in the strongest terms the illegitimate inauguration act of January 10 in Venezuela (…) product of electoral fraud imposed through state terror against the Venezuelan people.”
Maduro, in the presidency since 2013, took oath in a ceremony questioned by the United States, the European Union and several Latin American countries. The opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, claims he won the July 28 presidential elections and called the inauguration ceremony a “coup d’état.”
“He crowns himself dictator,” the opposition leader stated from exile in a video shared on social media. For the ADD, “there is evidence” that in the presidential elections “the electorate voted peacefully and massively in favor of Edmundo González Urrutia.”
The Venezuelan electoral authority proclaimed Maduro winner of the election with 52% of the votes, but to date has failed to publish the detailed count as required by law. The opposition claims González Urrutia won with 70% of the electorate. “The ADD will continue working with the international community for a democratic transition in Venezuela that ends this regrettable period of oppression and systematic human rights violations,” the statement added.
Alfredo Romero, president of the NGO Foro Penal, reported this Friday that his association has recorded “49 politically motivated arrests in Venezuela” since the beginning of the year. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who follows “with great concern” the situation in the South American country, called for the release of all “arbitrarily detained” individuals.
